Lyon v Bayern Munich: Arjen Robben is no longer the fall guy for Bundesliga side

We were watching the wrong game, the wrong player. With Leo Messi bound up in Jose Mourinho’s tactical shackles it was Arjen Robben who stole the Champions League show. For the third round running, the Dutchman scored an audacious goal to edge Bayern Munich towards the final in Madrid, playing with the exhilarating temerity we have come to expect from Barcelona’s subdued Argentine. This has been a season of phenomenal individuals performing with sustained brilliance: Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Robben deserves to be in that company.

His record this season bears comparison with anyone. He has 14 goals in 15 starts in the Bundesliga, two in two in the German Cup and four in six in the Champions League. In his last 19 he has scored 16. For a winger, it’s simply obscene.

These aren’t just any goals either. The one he scored against Schalke in the semi-final of the German Cup — he picked it up on the halfway line, sprinted past two tackles on the right touchline, cut back inside another from the by-line and bent the ball into the top corner – was treated to a two-page spread in German newspaper Bild. Wunder-tor, traum-tor – he just keeps scoring them.

His latest flourish was not as beautifully flighted as the goal against Fiorentina, nor as technically astonishing as the volley against Manchester United but once again it showed the effrontery of a man bored with conventional physics. He received the ball standing still, but with a dip of the shoulder and two strides he was clear of Lyon’s Cesar Delgado. He whipped his body into a shot from 30 yards sending it swerving through the air, clipping Thomas Muller’s fringe as he ducked and leaving goalkeeper Hugo Lloris wrong-footed and embarrassed.

At six foot, he does not have Messi’s close control and low centre of gravity but he is unbelievably quick and his graceful touch, nudging the ball with the outside of his left boot, means defenders cannot tackle him even if they know where he is about to go. They share that, Robben and Messi, the ability to slither through a defence like water into cracks.

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Bayern should have buried an insipid Lyon. Even after having to play with 10 men when Franck Ribery was sent off, Louis van Gaal’s team dominated. If Robben is even nearly as inspired in the second leg, he will be in Madrid on May 22 and, if Internazionale hold their 3-1 advantage, he will face his former mentor Mourinho. That will be an intriguing reunion.

Mourinho and Robben arrived at Chelsea in the same summer six years ago. The Dutchman was a coup for Chelsea, the transfer that told the rest of Europe they had really arrived as a force. Yet Robben never quite delivered on his potential. Mourinho became frustrated with his insufferable weediness — he refused to play through pain on several occasions — and as the Portuguese put more pressure on the Dutchman he tried too hard and lost his grasp of the basics. His game developed a distasteful indulgence.

That was most unattractively manifest in his, well, cheating. Fast players who try to dribble past defenders should be protected but Robben was ridiculous, not just for his diving but for the bullet-in-the-hamstring death throes that followed every theatrical tumble (both Guus Hiddink and Marco van Basten nagged him about it).

Sold to Real Madrid, he never quite managed to persuade the Bernabeu that he was a true galactico and he was lumped in with Rafael van der Vaart and Wesley Sneijder as Ramon Calderon’s Dutch dilettantes, a gifted but flimsy trio. After two seasons he was on his way.

He arrived at Bayern last summer with a total of £71 million in transfer fees to his name by the age of 25: there was obviously something feckless about his talent. But Bayern seemed to have cracked it: Robben has become the player he has always threatened to be. Where did it all go right?

Van Gaal, prickly and arrogant as he can be, has coaxed the best out of his surly protégé. It was he who persuaded Robben to switch from being a central striker to a winger when he was involved with the Dutch national youth sides. When Van Gaal replaced him on Wednesday with five minutes left, Robben got stroppy but Van Gaal grabbed him, looked him in the eyes and reminded him who was in charge. Robben immediately apologised for his behaviour on Dutch TV.

Bayern’s whole tactical system is geared towards Robben and his selfishness is indulged by team-mates because it so often succeeds. He also has the support of Philipp Lahm, Bayern’s superb right-back, with whom he has formed a strong partnership (it is interesting to see that Ribery’s form has dipped since Lahm switched from the left to the right). Robben feels protected, indulged, wanted.

If Van Gaal is managing Robben psychologically, there has also been a substantial improvement physiologically. He has changed his diet and sought the help of Dick van Toorn, a venerable Dutch physiotherapist who had worked with Johan Cruyff. Together with club doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfart, they have discovered a way to manage Robben’s unusual muscle fatigue and curb the regular injuries.

Mourinho is savvy enough to challenge his own prejudices. He must do so with Robben. His handling of Messi and Barcelona was nigh on impeccable in the San Siro and his preparation must be equally meticulous if he does meet Robben in the final, for this is now a different creature. On Wednesday night he didn’t dive once; it’s his opponents who play with fear now.